I've just learned, to the tune of a wasted 50 minutes that properties defined in a Python class declaration are not treated the same as when they're set in the initialiser. For example, you can set the same values in both the below cases:

classMyClass:foo='bar'

and

classMyClass:def__init__(self):self.foo='bar'

This means that in the first example, the value of foo is effectively shared between all instances of a class. If you changed that value in one instance, it would carry over til the next time you instantiated that class. It's basically a static property, but Python allows you to change it, 'cos Python doesn't judge (except on whitespace).

The second one works when you need a property to be manageable for each specific instance of a class, not shared among the instances; the downside is that you have to create an object from the class in order to access the property, 'cos it's not static. This was confirmed in a StackOverflow answer.

I guess there's no problem in doing both if you need it, but I got completely befuddled because I'd done method A, not B. If'd done B or both I'd have been fine, but basically I was constantly adding to a list of static properties and wondering why they were being shared between instances of a class. And now I know.

I don't feel bad that this isn't something I know, 'cos I'm self-taught in pretty much everything I do, but when you look at the difference and spend a little time considering the logic, it's kind of silly to think that this would be a point of confusion, especially for an OOP fan like me.